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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Necrolatry

A guest post by Y. Bloch

No, I don't mean necrophilia (well, maybe just a little,
metaphorically). Nor do I mean necromancy, although we'll get to that.
Necrolatry, you see, is the worship of the dead. It's something we don't
think about much in modern Western society, except for one day a year.
Well, a week. OK, a month. Fine, starting with Labor Day!

That, of
course, is when the stores in the US, Canada and the UK start hauling
out the merchandise for Halloween, All Hallows' Eve. If it has a witch,
skeleton or ghost on it, it goes on the shelves. Of course, as so much
of the stress has now moved to adult party attire (females, you can
choose anything from sexy abacus to sexy zucchini!) and refreshments
(what color vomit would look best on you?), Halloween has lost some of
its spookiness. Still, there's no question that this is a holiday with
some seriously macabre origins.

Just take a gander towards the
equator. In Mexico (and increasingly throughout Latin America), it's the
next day (or two) which are Día de Muertos. South of the border, they are not shy about their sexy skeletons.

I don't know, catrinas, those necklines are a little low-cut...

What's
remarkable is that although both holidays have pagan origins (and were
later Christianized), those origins are not the same, unless there was
some land-bridge connecting the Celts to the Aztecs. The desire to have
contact with the dead, especially one's own relatives, is apparently
universal.

That, presumably, is why the Torah feels the need to
express such antipathy towards these practices. The Torah forbids and
condemns acting as a "necromancer (ov) or spiritist (yidoni)"
or consulting such mediums. The elimination of such practices
establishes the bona fides of the first and last independent kings of
the Jewish state (Saul and Josiah), while embracing them is the final
line of the indictment against its wickedest monarch, Manasseh. More
than a dozen times, Scripture criticizes these acts. As Isaiah states
(8:19):

When someone tells you to consult necromancers
and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of
their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

According
to Deut. 18, being "an inquirer of necromancers and spiritists or a
seeker of the dead" is antithetical to the command "Be perfect with Lord
your God," the first command given to Abraham and Sarah: "Walk before
me and be perfect" (Gen. 17:1).

So don't light your Sabbath candles inside this.

This is a particularly relevant as we prepare to read Ḥayei Sara,
which literally means "the life of Sarah." Twice in the introductory
verse (Gen. 23:1), the Torah speaks of Sarah's life, even though the
portion that follows deals with the aftermath of her death. Thus, even
though it is about to speak of the demise of the first matriarch, the
Torah opens by referring to her life.

The same is true of the final portion of Genesis, Vayḥi, which is about Jacob's parting from his sons. Still, the introductory verse (47:28) states: "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, and Jacob's days, the years of his life..."
In fact, the verse describing Jacob's expiration does not even use the
standard phrase "and he died," leading to Rabbi Yoḥanan's famous
statement, "Our patriarch Jacob did not die... just as his progeny
lives, he lives" (Talmud, Taanit 5a).

Nor is this limited to our forebears in Genesis. Elsewhere (Berakhot
18a), R. Ḥiyya expounds: "'For the living know that they shall die'
(Eccl. 9:5) -- these are the righteous, who in their death are called
living." The Talmud seems to differ from the Bard's view: the good that
men do lives after them and is not interred with their bones.

Judaism
is not, and never should be, a death cult, seeking the approbation or
advice of those who have passed on. This is the hallmark of a dying or
dead faith. Torah, the tree of life (Prov. 3:18), is for the living.
Halloween is no Jewish holiday for good reason.

If it relates to Jews, Judaism, holidays, Midrash,Torah, halacha or anything similar, I probably have a post on it. And if I have a post on it, I probably have a good comment thread with great reader-provided information, too.

Try a search and see for yourself. If you can't find what you're looking for ask me.

Quotes

רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ דּוֹר וָדוֹר עַם דּוֹרֶשְׁךָ דְּרֹשׁ
Your chief word is "truth"; You've called it out since the beginning. In each generation people interpret You [for themselves] and find [their own] meaning.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd. -Flannery O'Connor

“When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.” - R. Abraham Joshua Heschel

I don't accept at all the quite popular argument that the press is responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. The monarchy's responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. To blame the press is the old thing of blaming the messenger for the message. -Anthony Holden

Said behind my back

"...he's trying to show that there are other facets to Orthodox Judaism. That we don't all think one way and vote one way. And he's occasionally entertaining when he's not being mean-spirited" [PsychoToddler]"

"He's witty. He's funny. He appreciates the ridiculous in life, and has no qualms about telling you when he thinks that you're being a moron" [Cara]

" I'm pretty sure [DovBear] is a really great guy who just wants to be able to ask questions and talk about things without the fear of someone claiming he's off the derech or on his way there." [Chaviva]